Josh Heupel breaks down Tennessee's linebacker play

As the Tennessee Volunteers continue with spring practice, one position is under a lot of scrutiny on the defensive side of the ball: linebacker.

The Volunteers were very veteran at linebacker a year ago, meaning many of last year’s contributors are no longer with the team this year. There are plenty of spots up for grabs.

Head coach Josh Heupel has been personally monitoring the group quite a bit, looking to see who might emerge and what kind of unit he might have. He’s reasonably impressed by what he’s seen so far.

“They’re relentless, they play with energy and passion,” Heupel said. “We’ve done a good job of tackling in some of the small space, but also in the open field. That group’s got a lot of leadership traits.”

The leading tackler from 2022, Aaron Beasley, is back and should help provide some veteran leadership in the unit. The Volunteers also brought in talented and experienced BYU transfer Keenan Pili.

In four years at BYU, Keenan Pili piled up 190 tackles, 11.0 tackles for a loss, 3.0 sacks, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and four pass breakups.

But there are also a lot of young players in the unit, and realistically Tennessee will almost certainly need to call on a few of them this fall. So their development this spring is a real key.

To that end, Heupel just wants to see them continuing to make progress at linebacker for Tennessee.

“I like how the young guys have kind of grown and fit into the culture,” Heupel said. “Got to have them continue to grow here as we go through spring ball, but excited about that group.”

Earlier this spring, Heupel explained his expectation for players when it comes to competing for jobs.

“At the end of the day, everybody that steps foot on his campus, Day 1, you better have the mentality and the approach that I’m competing to be the starter right now, here today,” he said. “If you do anything less than that, you’re cheating yourself, you’re cheating the program, you’re not going to be ready when your opportunity comes.

“At the same time, for the 125 guys that sit in our team room, it’s their responsibility, it’s their job, to prove that they’re gonna play at a championship level. When you do that, then it’s our job as coaches to find a role that’s going to allow you to play at a really high level and help us win football games.”